Central Mountainous Areas Research Articles

Spatial and temporal changes in desertification in the southern region of the Tengger Desert from 1973 to 2009

The sandy land in the southern region of the Tengger Desert is adjacent to cities and towns, and land desertification poses a threat to the livelihood and production of local residents. To determine dynamic changes in local desertification, five periods (1973, 1987, 1992, 2001, and 2009) of remote sensing data are studied by remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). The desert contraction area is primarily centered around three units (Wuwei, Gulang, and Jingtai) and nearby regions of Zhongwei City. The primary desert expansion areas include the west side of Helan Mountain (WSHM), the Central Mountainous Area (CMA), and the eastern and western Zhongwei units far from towns. From 1973 to 2009, the degree of change in the contracting part of the primary desert expansion unit showed an increasing trend; in brief, most of the desert (especially after 2001) has been developing in a direction in which desertification has been gradually controlled. The primary desert expansion areas are less affected by human activity, but they are primarily controlled by natural factors (especially wind and terrain). The desert contraction areas occur around the towns and nearby regions with frequent human activity; desertification is primarily controlled by human factors. With rapid economic development (especially after 2000), the scale of the cultivated area, town, and ecological protection engineering has gradually expanded, and the latter two are primarily built on a previous desert, which is the root cause of the reduction in the desert areas around the towns and the shrinkage toward north of border. Therefore, reasonable and effective human activity in the southern region of the Tengger Desert is playing a crucial role in preventing desertification.

Regeneration and Development of Native Plant Species in Restored Mountain Forests, Hainan Island, China

Abstract Natural regeneration was studied at 7-year-old native species regeneration sites on abandoned lands in central mountain areas of Hainan Island, off China's southern coast. Using linear sampling, 7 belt transects (each 5 m in width, with a cumulative length of 2000 m) were established and then subdivided into 400 plots (5 m × 5 m). Plant regeneration was surveyed on each plot. For each woody species, the life stage, mature height, dispersal mode, and successional status were assessed. The regenerating woody community at the sites was found to be species-rich, with 40 species identified. However, the community was dominated by a subset of secondary forest pioneer species, such as Liquidambar formosana, Aporosa chinensis, and Lannea grandis, whereas a number of prominent primary forest species, such as Castanopsis hainanensis and Machilus chinensis, were almost completely absent. Clustering analysis divided the 40 species into different functional groups: those with a primarily economic function, a ...

Long-term changes of temperature and humidity regime on Kamchatka Peninsula

Changes of temperature and humidity regime in Kamchatka are estimated on the seasonally and annually averaged data of long-term (1951-2009) monitoring on air temperature and precipitation at 10 meteorological stations (2-months natural synoptic seasons are used for averaging, as pre-winter, early winter, late winter, spring, summer, and autumn). Epochs with extremely dry and humid seasons are detected for certain climatic sub-regions of Kamchatka taking into account both temperature and precipitation anomalies (Pedya index - S). Besides, long-term changes of the sea surface temperature in the coastal areas of the Okhotsk and Bering Seas are determined that reflect thermal interaction between the atmosphere and ocean. The warming trend is revealed for the whole investigated region that is the most expressed in the pre-winter and late winter seasons and the less pronounced in the south and north of the Peninsula (slight cooling is observed in its northern and northeastern areas in early winter). The sea surface has a tendency to warm, too, but slower than the air; the greatest warming trend is observed in the coastal Okhotsk Sea in spring and autumn and in the coastal Bering Sea in autumn. Annual precipitation has opposite changes in different parts of the Peninsula: its volume tends to decrease in the north and the south, on the western and northeastern coasts, and in the Kamchatka River valley but tends to increase in the central mountainous area and on the eastern coast.

Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape formation in a gully catchment area in Northern Hesse, Germany

Permanent gully channels under forest are common geomorphological features in Central European low mountain areas. In the Rehgraben/Fuchslöchergraben gully catchment in Northern Hesse, Germany the Late Pleistocene landscape formation is reconstructed based on periglacial cover beds. In addition, the Holocene landscape development and soil erosion history are investigated using anthropogenic soil sediments and alluvial fan sediments. Until now, a combination of these approaches has not been applied to a gully catchment to this extent. The distribution of the different Quaternary sediments enables the differentiation between Pleistocene and Holocene landforms. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating are applied to add numerical data to the relative ages of the sediments and landforms.The gully channels are oriented along Pleistocene depressions that are built up of periglacial cover beds and intercalated reworked loess. As the gully channels cut through the periglacial cover beds, especially the upper layer, the gully system is of Holocene age. At least two phases of gully erosion are identified in the alluvial fan sediments. The initial gully erosion is dated to the time span between the Late Bronze Age and Roman Times. A second gully erosion phase is dated to the 14th century and may be correlated to the severe precipitation events during this time. Gully erosion started during the Younger Holocene and is connected to human settlement and land use activity. The intense human impact hampers the application of the concept of periglacial cover beds to reconstruct landscape formation and limits it to areas where the periglacial upper layer is still preserved.

Climate Change and Indigenous People: Perceptions of Transhumant Herders and Implications to the Transhumance System in the Himalayas

Climate change poses differential vulnerability for different communities, sectors and regions. People, whose subsistence livelihood is based on the direct utilisation of natural resources are most affected by climate change and have different but accurate perceptions of climate change than those people following modern lifestyles. The herders of the higher Himalayas follow vertical transhumance and combine it with subsistence agriculture for their livelihood. Although, climate models have predicted pronounced warming in high altitude areas of the Himalayas and there are many indications that climate change impacts different aspects of transhumance, there is no information on how transhumant herders have perceived change in climate and how these changes might impact transhumance system. One hundred and forty five transhumant herders were interviewed from three Village Development Committees (VDCs) namely Khumjung in Solukhumbu, Kalinchok in Dolakhaand Majhigaun in Bajhang; representing Eastern, Central and far-Western mountainous areas of Nepal respectively to explore their perceptions about climate change and other observed changes in biophysical indicators. About 80% of the herders perceived increasing summer temperature, 92% decreasing winter rainfall and more than 93% noticed decreasing snowfall. Majority of the herders agreed that there was fast melting of snow in the rangelands, rainfall events were becoming more and more unpredictable, drought events increased, there was early induce in greenery and maturity of grasses in the rangelands and appearance of new livestock diseases. These observations suggest that transhumant herders in the Himalayas have experienced change in climatic variables and have noticed change in bio-physical indicators that have implications to the transhumance system. The findings help to devise adaptation strategies for indigenous communities and incorporate them in the climate change policies in the Himalayas.

Biomass carbon accumulation in aging Japanese cedar plantations in Xitou, central Taiwan

BackgroundJapanese cedar (Chrytomeria japonica D. Don) is an important plantation species in Taiwan and represents 10% of total plantation area. It was first introduced in 1910 and widely planted in the northern and central mountainous areas of Taiwan. However, a change in forest management from exotic species to native species in 1980 had resulted in few new Japanese cedar plantations being established. Most Japanese cedar plantations are now between 30 and 50 years old and reaching their rotation period. It is of interest to know whether these plantations could be viable for future carbon sequestration through the accumulations of stand carbon stocks. Twelve even-aged Japanese cedar stands along a stand age gradient from 37 to 93 years were selected in Xitou of central Taiwan. The study aims were to investigate the basic stand characteristics and biomass carbon stock in current Japanese cedar stands, and determine the relationships among stand characteristics, tree biomass carbon, and stand age.ResultsOur results indicate that existing Japanese cedar plantations are still developing and their live tree biomass carbon continues to accumulate. At stands with a stand age of 90 years, tree density, canopy height, mean diameter at breast height, basal area, and live tree biomass carbon stocks reach to nearly 430 tree ha-1, 27 m, 48 cm, 82 m2 ha-1 and 300 Mg C ha-1, respectively.ConclusionsTherefore, with no harvesting, current Japanese cedar plantations provide a carbon sink by storing carbon in tree biomass.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1999-3110-54-60) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Karyological and morphological investigations on aHieraciumputatively endemic to the National Park “Foreste Casentinesi, M. Falterona, Campigna” (northern Apennines, central Italy)

A putatively endemic infraspecific taxon of the Hieracium villosum group from the northern Apennines was investigated from nomenclatural, morphological and karyological points of view. H. villosum Jacq. var. zangherii Vignolo-Lutati proved to be invalidly described, and for its morphological features was referred to H. dentatum Hoppe subsp. xanthostylophorum Furrer & Zahn, a taxon hitherto only known from Abruzzo (Central Apennines). Karyological investigations resulted in the first report for an Italian specimen belonging to the collective species H. dentatum. H. dentatum subsp. xanthostylophorum proved to be tetraploid, with a formula 2n = 4x = 36 = 2M + 14m + 18sm + 2st. Chromosomes were generally of large size and showed a low degree of polymorphism in their shapes. The karyological parameters of H. dentatum subsp. xanthostylophorum have been compared with some available karyological parameters from the literature, belonging to related entities of Hieracium subgen. Hieracium. The Italian Hieracium subgen. Hieracium populations proved to have the most asymmetric karyotypes with respect to other European populations. H. dentatum subsp. xanthostylophorum showed an intermediate karyotype asymmetry between Hieracium subgen. Hieracium populations of the Balkan Peninsula and those of southern Tuscany. From a broader point of view, this study confirms in the northern Apennines a trend pointed out in other central and southern European mountain areas: the core taxon (H. villosum) is surrounded by tetraploid apomictic lineages that show some morphological characters of other Hieracium species; in the case of H. dentatum subsp. xanthostylophorum (= H. villosum “var. zangherii”), characters of H. bifidum.

The Saman Gayo Lues Sitting Song-Dance and ITS Recognition as an Item of Intangible Cultural Heritage

The saman song-dance of the Aceh Gayo Lues people, who inhabit the central mountainous areas of the province of Aceh, is one of the most dramatic and famous of Indonesia's performing arts and a key symbol of Gayo cultural identity, yet it has not to date been a subject of ethnomusicological research.

Nutritional Practices among Ethnic Minorities and Child Malnutrition in Mountainous Areas of Central Vietnam

Background: Despite the success of National Action Plan on Nutrition program in reducing malnutrition among children under 5 years old in Vietnamin recent years, the rate of malnutrition inVietnamremains higher than that rate in other surrounding countries. The rate is especially high in mountainous areas. This study aims to explore the association between the mother’s nutrition care practice and the nutritional status of their children. Methods: 400 Children under 5 years of age and their mothers from Thanh Hoa—a Northern Province of Vietnam were included in this survey. Weight and height of the children were measured. Information related to the mother’s knowledge and practices pertaining to child health care and nutrition was collected. Results: The malnutrition rate was 29.3% by weight for age score (WAZ), 28.3% by height for age score (HAZ) and 10.0% by weight for height score (WHZ). 27.3% of mothers discarded the colostrum milk. 21.3% of children were fed with chewing rice before breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding up to four months was 17.8% and exclusive breastfeeding rates for 6 months or more was 8.6%. Weaning practice before four months of age was 53.7%. There was an association between malnutrition with mother’s ethnic group, and the frequency of consumption of protein rich food. Conclusion: Malnutrition of ethnic minority children under five years of age is still a public health problem in the central mountainous areas ofVietnam. Inappropriate breastfeeding and weaning practice among ethnic minority women were associated with this high rate. Further effort should continue to improve the nutrition status of ethnic minority children under 5 years of age. Customized, culturally adapted interventions for ethnic minority women to strengthen their nutrition care knowledge, attitude and practice, especially breastfeeding and weaning practice are the key to achieving better nutrition status of their children.

Establishmentof Quality-SafetyTraceabilitySystemfor Navel Orange

Traceability system has been an import means in food quality and safetymanagement. Governments in many countries are putting increasing emphasis onestablishment of food traceability systems. According to production, processing, storage and distribution of the featureagricultural products----navel orange in the central mountain area of China, this article proposes the technology line and the main result of the research of traceability forqualitysafetyof navel orange.

Behavior of Airborne Particulate Secondary Pollutants in the Central Mountainous Area, Japan

Behavior of Airborne Particulate Secondary Pollutants in the Central Mountainous Area, Japan

Behavior of Airborne Acidic and Oxidative Components in Autumn and Early Spring in the Central Mountainous Area of Japan

Behavior of Airborne Acidic and Oxidative Components in Autumn and Early Spring in the Central Mountainous Area of Japan

Human fascioliasis in Argentina: retrospective overview, critical analysis and baseline for future research

In Argentina, human fascioliasis has never been adequately analysed, although having a physiography, climate, animal prevalences and lymnaeids similar to those of countries where the disease is endemic such as Bolivia, Peru and Chile. We performed a literature search identifying 58 reports accounting for 619 cases, involving 13 provinces, their majority (97.7%) from high altitudes, in central mountainous areas and Andean valleys, concentrated in Cordoba (430 cases), Catamarca (73), San Luis (29) and Mendoza (28), the remaining provinces being rarely affected. This distribution does not fit that of animal fascioliasis. Certain aspects (higher prevalence in females in a local survey, although a trend non-significant throughout Argentina) but not others (patient's age 3-95 years, mean 37.1 years) resemble human endemics in Andean countries, although the lack of intensity studies and surveys in rural areas does not allow for an adequate evaluation. Human infection occurs mainly in January-April, when higher precipitation and temperatures interact with field activities during summer holidays. A second June peak may be related to Easter holidays. The main risk factor appears to be wild watercress ingestion (214) during recreational, weekend outings or holiday activities, explaining numerous family outbreaks involving 63 people and infection far away from their homes. Diagnosis mainly relied on egg finding (288), followed by serology (82), intradermal reaction (63), surgery (43), and erratic fluke observation (6). The number of fascioliasis-hydatidosis co-infected patients (14) is outstanding. Emetine appears as the drug most used (186), replaced by triclabendazole in recent years (21). Surgery reports are numerous (27.0%). A long delay in diagnosis (average almost 3.5 years) and high lithiasis proportion suggest that many patients are frequently overlooked and pose a question mark about fascioliasis detection in the country. High seroprevalences found in recent random surveys suggest human endemic situations. This analysis highlights that human fascioliasis may have been overlooked in the past and its real epidemiological situation in high risk rural, mainly altitudinal areas, may currently be underestimated. Results provide a valuable baseline on which to design appropriate multidisciplinary studies on humans, animals and lymnaeids to assess up to which level and in which areas, human fascioliasis may represent a health problem in Argentina.

Análisis filogenético de la roya americana de la soya, Phakopsora meibomiae.

La roya americana de la soya (AmSR), causada por Phakopsora meibomiae (Arthur) Arthur, se encuentra limitada a pocas áreas del Hemisferio Occidental. No se conocen pérdidas severas causadas por este patógeno en cultivos de importancia económica. Phakopsora meibomiae infecta naturalmente 42 especies de leguminosas de la subfamilia Papilionoidea. Durante el 2008, se colectaron ocho aislados de AmSR infectando Lablab purpureus en la cordillera central de Puerto Rico. Se realizó análisis molecular filogenético de la región interna transcrita (ITS), incluyendo la región 5.8S ribosomal (rADN). La topología del árbol generado por los métodos de parsimonia y Neighbor-Joining fue similar. Los aislados se identificaron como Phakopsora meibomiae con un porcentaje de identidad entre el 98 y 100%. Estos aislados fueron agrupados en un grupo monofilético. Phakopsora pachyrhizi fue la especie más relacionada, y formó un segundo ciado. Otras especies de royas de los géneros Uromyces, Puccinia, Tranzschelia, Hemileia, el carbón Ustilago y la seta comestible Boletus se incluyeron en el análisis como grupos distantes. Las especies de Phakopsora agrupadas en la familia Pucciniaceae forman un ciado hermano con las familias Phakopsoraceae y Uropyxidaceae.

The performance of nature reserves in capturing the biological diversity on Hainan Island, China

The performance of nature reserves depends on the degree to which they represent a region's full biodiversity. Here, we conducted a study on Hainan Island, China, to assess how well Hainan's biodiversity features were captured by existing nature reserves. We also explored the driving forces behind the current protection pattern so as to provide guidelines for improving the island's conservation system. We integrated the information on nature reserves, ecological variables, and human activities into a spatial database, then assessed the performance of nature reserves in representing natural variation, vegetation types, and species, and examined the impacts of human activities and land ownership on the current protection pattern. About 8.4% of Hainan Island was protected by nature reserves; the coverage was geographically biased toward its central mountainous areas with higher elevation, rugged terrain, and fertile soils. We found that 60% of the environmental units and 39.4% of the natural vegetation types had more than 10% of their area protected, respectively. Lowlands tended to have higher animal species richness, and the protection for endangered species was less efficient. Nature reserve coverage was negatively correlated with amount of converted habitats, human population density, and road density, and 82.4% of the total reserved area was allocated on state-owned land. Nature reserve coverage was not enough to capture lowlands biodiversity features. The current protection pattern was significantly driven by several major conservation targets, human development, planning methods, and land ownership. To improve its conservation system, Hainan should enhance protection in the north and northeast plains and coastal regions, implement systematic planning approaches to define clear visions for guiding future conservation actions, and develop flexible management and funding mechanisms toward sustainable use of natural resources.

AKTIVITAS VULKANISME EKSPLOSIF PENGHASIL FORMASI SEMILIR BAGIAN BAWAH DI DAERAH JETIS IMOGIRI

The widely exposed of volcanic rocks within western part of Central Java-DIY Southern Mountain areas, indicates that volcanic activities had influenced geology of this area. Volcanic-stratigraphic study finds pumiceus rocks, tuff and co-ignimbrite breccias that can be described as primery volcanic rocks at study areas. Those volcanic rocks were erupted explosively followed by collapsing strato cone and forming new caldera. The associate of volcanic rocks with co-ignimbrite breccias, indicates that the central eruption was not far from the outcropes. Shallow intrusive rocks of andecites bearing hornblendes that exposed at the highest cone shape geomorphology of Gunung Gede, south to southwest Sudimoro, might be as the central eruptions.

Dating of volcanism and sedimentation in the Skelton Group, Transantarctic Mountains: Implications for the Rodinia-Gondwana transition in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica

The Ross orogen in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, is composed of Skelton Group metasedimentary rocks and varied plutons of the Granite Harbor intrusives. In the Baronick Glacier area, metasediments are dominated by thick sequences of coarse conglomerate, interbedded with pisolitic limestones. Clasts within metaconglomerates are predominantly volcanic, ranging in composition from basanite to rhyolite. Baronick basaltic clast compositions are mildly alkalic and ocean-island basalt–like, compatible with eruption in a continental-margin rift environment. Sr-Nd isotope ratios suggest rhyolites and quartz-trachytes were produced by assimilation and fractional crystallization mechanisms. Two rhyolites yielded U-Pb zircon ages determined by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) of 650.1 ± 4.0 Ma and 648.5 ± 3.2 Ma (both 2σ). Studies of southern Victoria Land Skelton Group metasediments indicate that, although dominated by Grenville-aged detrital zircons, they contain an important component dated between 630 and 680 Ma, overlapping the age of volcanism in both the Baronick Glacier and central Transantarctic Mountain areas. The distribution of 650 Ma, rift-related volcanism in the southern Victoria Land segment of the Ross orogen, and the absence of significant older, but post-Grenville, extension-related zircon populations, is interpreted to reflect initiation of Rodinia fragmentation on the Antarctic margin at this time. It is proposed that rifting along the paleo-Pacific margin was diachronous, with the Antarctic segment of the rift opening substantially earlier than in Australia. Based on the dates of subduction-related calc-alkaline plutons formed during the Ross and Delamerian orogenies, the paleo–Pacific Ocean in Antarctica may also have closed earlier than in Australia, effectively defining the time of Gondwana assembly.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of fog occurrence over the Korean Peninsula

In this study, fogs are classified based on the spatial and temporal characteristics over South Korea using the visibility data and the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and wavelet analyses. With fog defined in terms of visibility (<1 km), the EOF analysis is performed to extract spatial distribution characteristics via dimension reduction, whereas the space‐time wavelet expansion is applied to the EOF time series to specify the fog characteristics in the space of time versus scale (i.e., period in this study). The first EOF mode occupies 48.9% of total variance and shows the fog distribution covering almost entire areas of South Korea with one sign (+), except at the eastern coast and western part of the southern coast. The wavelet analysis reveals that this fog occurs based on meteorological conditions of various scales from daily to seasonal, thus classified as mixed fog. The second EOF mode, which occupies 19.5% of total variance, shows distinct separation of spatial distribution of fog, with a negative (−) sign in winter over northwestern coastal/inland, western coastal, and south central mountain areas of South Korea and a positive (+) sign in other seasons elsewhere. With cycles of 1–2 weeks and 1–2 months being dominant in the wavelet analysis, this fog is considered to be strongly affected by synoptic scale weather systems and monsoon. Fog over the positive area is mostly affected by monsoon and/or cyclonic frontal systems, thus classified as frontal fog, whereas that over the negative area is affected by the cold‐core anticyclones moving over warm sea surface in winter or by radiative cooling, thus classified as steam fog (coastal/sea) or radiation fog (inland), respectively. The mountain area may have upslope fog because of orographic lifting. The third EOF mode, occupying 6.7% of total variance, depicts distinct spatial separation of fog distribution around the coastal areas with a negative (−) sign and in the inland areas with a positive (+) sign. The former, with a dominant 1–2 week cycle, is classified as sea fog affected by migratory anticyclones and monsoon in late spring and summer, while the latter, with a dominant diurnal variation, represents radiation fog under clear sky in autumn. It turns out that the combined EOF and wavelet analyses are useful to assess the detailed spatial and temporal characteristics of various types of fog occurrence in South Korea.

Soil Freezing and Wintertime Soil CO2 Concentration Affected by Interannual Climate Conditions in the Central Mountainous Area, Japan

土壌凍結と環境因子との関係を把握することは，寒冷地域における冬季の水文現象を予測する上で重要である．著者らは中部山岳地域の森林流域内に設定した試験地において，土壌凍結とそれに関連する環境因子を1996～2003年にかけてほぼ毎月観測した．各年の最大凍結深（Dmax）と最大積雪深の間には，積雪の断熱効果に起因する明瞭な負の相関が見られた．積雪の影響を考慮した修正凍結指数もDmaxと強い相関を示し，この値が現在より約8割低下すると凍結が生じなくなること，この程度の低下は積雪深の増加によって容易に生じることが示された．2001-2002年冬季に実施した多点調査の結果，これらの関係は斜面方位によって大きく異なっていた．土壌中で生成されたCO2の大気中への放出が抑制された結果，凍結層下ではCO2濃度の上昇が見られた．冬季における深度別の最大CO2濃度はDmaxとともに増加したが，Dmaxが10cmを超えると相関が見られなくなった．近い将来における土壌凍結現象の予測には，冬季の気温上昇とともに積雪深の変化が重要である．

Modelling the interdependencies of critical infrastructures during natural disasters: a case of supply, communication and transportation infrastructures

This paper introduces the methodological challenge of identifying and quantifying the interdependencies among several critical infrastructures. First, interdependency structures during a natural disaster are modelled-based on past events, considering supply (electricity, water and gas), communication (internet and telephone) and transportation infrastructures (road networks). Interdependencies are defined with respect to physical, functional and socioeconomic interrelationships. A quantification strategy is then introduced based on empirical surveys and economic models. As a case study, the developed model is applied to the 2004 Mid-Niigata Earthquake, which severely damaged infrastructure systems in the central mountainous area of Japan.